Sunday, July 17, 2011

The Coolest Basketball Courts in Chicago

We recently stumbled upon a great time lapse video shot by Josh Kalven on the blog Chicagoist. It's a great thing to watch and definitely reminds us why we love Chicago (especially the Summer in this great city):




Summer Sped Up (A Chicago Timelapse) from Josh Kalven on Vimeo.

Good stuff. But what got our attention was Chicagoist's comment about "the coolest basketball courts on the planet at the south end of the South Loop under the Green Line L tracks". For those of you who don't want to watch the entire video, you will see the shot at 2:47.

Ironically, we were just walking by the courts recently and some out of town friends commented that "those are pretty Chicago". Indeed. We also noticed something interesting about these courts this past Friday at Midnight. When walking by there were probably 20-30 Asian kids playing.

Anyway, these courts are pretty sweet and have been used many times in basketball commercials. Here is a link to a post we did showcasing an Addidas Derrick Rose commercial and here is a link to a Gatorade commercial for a special edition Michael Jordan drink.

FYI - there is also a nice shot of one of the South Loop's most prominent high-rises, One Museum Park, overlooking Grant Park at 3:24. Pretty stuff.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

This basketball court at 18th and state is by far the best basketball court in Chicago. There could be a resurfacing job done though. Me and my buddies play there often, and it is very common for people to get hurt due to the uneven surface of the court. If anyone has any information on any way of solving this problem I would love to hear it.

Anonymous said...

These courts are pretty sweet? I agree with you guys on a lot of things, but frankly these courts are horrible, and exemplify the poor job being done on getting our South Loop parks improved. This would not be tolerated in the West Loop.

From the poor condition of the surface, the little shelter where the homeless guys sleep, to the poor lighting, this park could become a nice little site with a few focused upgrades and creativity.

Anyone with vision would have told Gatorade, 'hey, you just filmed two commercials here, how about now working with us to put some upgrades into them and making a cool pocket basketball park'.

Anonymous said...

I contacted the Alderman's office about the basketball court at 18th and State. I expressed my concerns with the uneven surface and that a lot of people play there, and that people are often hurt including me from playing on the uneven surface. I received an email back about 5 hours later that notified me that they are going to contact the Chicago Park District to see if there is anything that could be done to fix up the court. I am very happy so far with the response but we will see in the future if anything is actually done. Also the alderman's office thanked me for showing them this blog they said they didn't no about it. This was alderman Dowell's office. Maybe they will become active members of the blog!

St Louis basketball courts said...

I know it sounds geeky, but I'm sort of an aficionado of basketball courts. I'll check these out next time I'm in that part of Chicago.

Anonymous said...

That court is just East of Chinatown and it's called, Margaret Hie Ding Lin Park. It's right across from the Police Dept. Not a bad place to ball but the hoops are double rim and extremely unforgiving. Also, the ground is downright terrible, especially after it has rained. People are always either falling into the cracks or slipping in the puddles and breaking their ankles. Despite the ground being so uneven, this court is classic considering pros like Derrick Rose and Michael Jordan have actually been there.

Another awesome place to play with fairly level ground is at 35th and Lake Shore. Just park beside the church at the far East end of 35th, and walk across the bridge over the tracks and Lake Shore Dr. After going down the stairs you'll see the courts off to the left. It's usually pretty competitive but one of the best spots I've ever played in the summer. You can throw down some nasty hoops and get some nice whoops from the people riding by on the bike path. Any other good places to play where you won't get killed or robbed? That's about it for the South Side if you're white as far as I'm concerned.

Unknown said...

to the first commenter contact your aldermans office resurfacing projects start at the end of april and go through september the neighborhood gets money from the city to fix stuff lie that and most of it goes to fix things the community complains about, havent ever done this in the s loop bt tom tunney and sougata debb in lakeview do a great job with this

just saw someone did contact them make sure you stay on them call once a week for updates